Sunday, August 12, 2012

Thai Cooking | Tom Yum Goong

It’s typhoon season once again and nothing beats a
cold rainy night than a bowl of a piping hot soup. Of among the many soup we
have, Sinigang, be it seafood or meat, occupies a special place in our heart. It
has been our national all-time favorite, and each region displays uniqueness in
how much level of sourness it can take and what souring agent it uses. The dish
is simple and the flavor is straightforward, but it differs in myriad ways on
how it is concocted. Sinigang, as Chef Amy Besa said in her book Memories of
Philippine Kitchens, is a food that was always ours along with Adobo and
Kinilaw, and all the three dishes share the same acid component, which is one
of the basic element of Filipino taste.

The Pinoy’s Sinigang is closely related to Thailand’s
Tom Yum. I am delighted to know that even we are a long time colony of Spain,
Japan and US, we are indeed Asian in our roots and it is evident that we share
some recipes with our Asian neighbors. Our Sinigang is basic and simple; the
Thai’s Tom Yum is more than that. Imagine a basic sinigang, add herbs and the
contrasting flavors of sweet and salty, add some kick of spice. There’s
cocomilk to balance out and to temper the flavors, and instead of vegetables,
add some mushrooms and fresh herbs.

Tom Yum is probably one of the most well known Thai
dishes in the world and according to Wikipedia, it is widely served in
neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. “Tom” means
soup and “yum” means sour and spicy. It is generally a name given to any hot
and spicy sour soup.

For this highly addictive dish, we will use shrimps,
hence the name “Goong”. My secret here is the use of a good stock. I did not
discard the shrimp heads, instead I pounded it and extracted as much juice as possible.
The head packs a lot of flavors we need to make this a flavorful dish.

What is something unique here is their use of
Galangal, a rhizome related to ginger that has much flavor and taste than
ginger, and the Kaffir Lime leaves, a variety of lime endemic to Thailand and
some Asian countries. If there’s no available galangal, you can use ginger
instead. Kaffir lime leaves has no alternative and this makes this soup unique
because of the flavor and aroma these lime leaves impart. These two basic
ingredients can be found in Asian section of any local supermarkets here in
Cebu. We will be using the commercial Tom Yum paste, which is a ready made
paste made of finely crushed herbs (lemongrass, garlic, galangal, coriander,
palm sugar), spices (roasted red chillies) and shrimp paste stir fried in oil.

What we need:

4-5 cups water (shrimp stock)

6-8 pieces prawns, skinned and deveined, heads
removed

4-5 pieces Kaffir Lime leaves

4-5 slices Galangal

4 stalks Lemon Grass, bruised and bundled

Bird’s Eye Chillies, minced (siling labuyo)

Onions medium size, sliced just as you do for
sinigang (but you may opt not to use it)

Tomatoes, 2 pieces medium size, sliced in quarters

5-6 pieces fresh Oyster Mushrooms

3-4tablespoons Tom Yum Paste

Muscovado sugar to taste

Fish sauce to taste

Lime/Lemon sliced in wedges

Coconut milk

How to cook Tom Yum Goong:

1. Boil the water and add the juice extracted from
the shrimp heads.

2. Bruise or crush the lemon grass stalks and tie the
leaves in bundle so you can easily remove it later when the soup is done and is
ready for serving. Drop the lemon grass dried galangal and kaffir lime leaves
in the boiling stock. Drop chopped chilies, or omit it if you don’t want some
kick in your soup.

3. When boiling, add onions, tomatoes (you can omit
this one if you are not used to) and the mushrooms. I love to use tomatoes as
it imparts a bit of acidity in the soup. Add the fish sauce, adjusting the
taste according to your preference.

4. Add the Tom Yum paste a few table spoon at a time,
tast-testing as you go until you are happy with the spice level and flavor. At
this time all the flavors are already cooking in your pot. You can adjust and
balance the flavors by putting small amount of muscovado sugar and fish sauce.
Remember that in Thai cooking you have to balance all the flavors, not too
sweet, not to salty, not too sour and spicy.

5. For the sourness, add lime juice. Don’t worry as
we will serve the soup with lime wedges if the soup is not that sour.

6. Add the shrimps and coconut milk at the last stage
as we don’t want to over cook it. Boil for the last time and then serve hot.

7. Garnish a bowl of hot soup with coriander leaves,
and some lemon wedges and fish sauce on the side. This serves 2-3 persons.

Variatons:

You can also make tom yum out of mixed seafood and
chicken, or a combination of all.

The next time you will visit any Thai or Asian restaurants
in the city, Tom Yum is a must try. Better if you will make it at your home.

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Happenings | Calendar of Events

NATURAL & ORGANIC FOOD MARKET ENCOUNTER

July 4, 2012 3:00pm to 5:00pmCebu City Marriott Hotel

{This free event is brought to us by the Cebu Chamber of Commerce & Industry, in partnership with Germany’s AFOS Foundation & GFH, the Association of Negros Producers and the Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce & Industry.